ADRIAN — Travis Bice and Heidi Hartline of Fairfield Township, along with Bice’s toddler daughter, Lacy, walked Wednesday through Lenawee Project Connect in the Merchants Building at the Lenawee County Fair and Event Grounds.

Lacy was holding a soft teddy bear she had received at the event.

“We just came to see if there is anything we could use for us,” said Bice, who is unemployed.

The annual event, sponsored by Lenawee County Continuum of Care, is designed to bring together

people in need of services with housing, food, medical care, employment, education and other service providers. The project was renamed Lenawee Project Connect this year from Project Homeless Connect to emphasize that it is not just for homeless people.

“It’s going fabulous,” said Khristine Henson-Jones, co-chair of the continuum of care and executive director of the Lenawee Emergency and Affordable Housing Corp.

Henson-Jones said more than 50 service providers were at the event. People from at least 150 households had already attended the four-hour event with more than two hours still to go, she said.

The Merchants Building offered more space than the project had in previous years, allowing the service providers to spread out and provide more privacy when talking to those seeking assistance, Henson-Jones said.

The project partnered this year with 1Matters, a Toledo organization that works with the unhoused, Henson-Jones said. Ken Leslie, who founded 1Matters, said the organization got a grant from ProMedica to expand and asked to partner with Lenawee Project Connect.

“We chose Lenawee because you guys really have your act together with Continuum of Care,” Leslie said.

Among other things, 1Matters brought volunteers to help guide people through the event, he said.

Lana Cozzens, who lives near Blissfield, said she came looking for help finding a job.

“It’s a lot of people and I think it’s cool,” she said of the event.

Henson-Jones said a one-day, point-in-time census of the homeless and near-homeless also was taking place Wednesday. Besides taking place at Lenawee Project Connect, the count was being taken at several social service agencies and by some schools, she said.

The count is required every two years by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development for counties to be eligible to receive federal grants to help the homeless.